apple human interface guidelines
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Apple Xcode magazine template could streamline iPad publishing
Magazines and newspapers on the iPad would appear to be a perfect match for the device, but attempts such as Rupert Murdoch's The Daily and Sir Richard Branson's Project have met with limited success. There are many possible reasons for this, ranging from Apple's demands for 30 percent of all revenues from in-app purchases of subscriptions to the lack of a consistent user experience. The latter seems to be the biggest problem for many potential readers, since each magazine or newspaper seems to have its own unique method of navigating pages. Gadget Daily News is claiming that Apple has an answer in the works: a magazine template for the Xcode development environment that will provide a consistent, manageable user experience. The template will not only provide a familiar look and feel between all magazines and newspapers that are developed using the code, but also make it simple to sell subscriptions and back issues from within the app. According to Gadget Daily News, this should open up iPad publishing considerably, since people who wish to create and sell their own content need only get together with a developer to get their magazines or newspapers into the App Store in a short amount of time. The template could open up a huge new market for what blogger Anthony Morganti calls "Garage Magazines" -- self-published magazines that target a specific market. That's an apt moniker, considering that the company making this possible began its life in a garage. The template is expected to arrive before the end of 2011. Let's just hope that self-titled magazines like the one shown in the illustration above don't become commonplace. [via Electronista]
IndieHIG
My highschool chemistry teacher was fond of saying, 'Gentlemen, we must seek isotropy.' This was his little way of telling us that we should all be on the same page, going in the same direction if you will. The Apple Human Interface Guidelines (HIG) used to serve as a one stop shop for developers seeking the 'Mac' way of doing things with UI. Sadly, it seems that Apple has all but abandoned this noble document.IndieHIG is a project that hopes to fill the void left by Apple. It is an independent Wiki that offers itself up as a collaborative space for Mac developers to define the way apps on OS X should behave. A noble effort, though one that I would expect Apple to be spearheading. Here's hoping that the IndieHIG ushers in a new Golden Age of UI consistency.Gentlemen, good luck on your quest for isotropy.
